This week two people at work have said that they were hungover and another said he was still drunk from the night before. This is out of a total of about 46 and I have not spoken with everyone so it is genuine percentage.
These people are not being praised but it is certainly acceptable to turn up for work this way and there is an underlying sentiment of 'I made it to work despite being hungover.' This is on a weeknight.
Here in Britain at least the idea of going out and enjoying yourself without alcohol is considered unusual to say the least. It is an Alice Through the Looking Glass world where little justification is needed to drink excessively but if you mean not to drink then you have to be armed with an excuse "I am on antibiotics" or "I'm watching the calories" in order to avoid being called anti-social or a spoilsport.
Whether you go out or stay home advertisments for alcohol are ubiquitous and across all media platforms - mostly consisting of attractive young people in impossibly glamorous surroundings. It is grooming young people into the normalization of alcohol with a fictional ideal that bears no resemblance to reality.
My last couple of years of drinking were a joyless world of solo drinking without any social aspect but prior then I was a part of that booze culture. I am hoping there will be people reading this who also fall into that category and who want to get off the alcoholic treadmill before they reach the state I did.
All my best memories of weekends, nights out, concerts, bands, sporting events and travel date from before alcohol took its iron grip. Surely it is better to have a night you don't want to forget than a night you cannot remember.
